BrandSoul

The lobster and me

I shared a wonderful time in Boston along with my friend Michael Read, of the NASA. He took the picture. We were enjoying the moment, that's for sure.

Bostonian chronicle I

I had a great time in Boston. Well, great is not the word. Terrific!

I arrived in Boston on tuesday. Weather was awful. The first thing I thought was: I know why they call it New England. I soon caught the subway and installed at the Marriott Hotel in the M.I.T. area. I tried to get in touch with Steve Sherlock but as he was not available, I decided to go for a visit to Harvard Square. It was raining and although I tried to take some photos, the weather did not help much. I came back to the Hotel and surprise...There was Steve Sherlock.

The way of the intellectual

At times, some friends have told me my personality is very intellectual like. I have never thought of me as that. I connect intellectual with a very thoughtful and less emotional person. On the contrary, I see myself as very emotional and even sensitive. But the last weeks I have realized it could be true that I have an intellectual personality. I will explain you why. The fact is that, more and more, I tend to think in terms of the reasons why things happen, and that means going from one theory to another. Even when some fact disturbs me or affects me emotionnally I try to make sense by finding a psychological explanation or trying to find a solution by aplying certain sociological model. All this is true. So I have realized that my thinking is like a chain of theories one connected to the other. And the funny thing is that I have realized most people don't think like that. If you read my posts you will find lots of references to authors. They are because my thought flows like that.

Don't anticipate

It was Gadamer who, in his book Truth and method stated that the basic trait of human understanding is anticipation. I have found sometimes that people tend to anticipate opinions on things they don't really know about. This is particularly painful when we anticipate opinions about people. We always judge people based on the collective types circulating in our social consciousness. Aristotle founded his Ethics on this basis. But it is self limiting to project these arche-types before knowing a person. Some people call to this intuition. But I perfer to call it wrong-intuition. My advice is: go and know the person.

Kobe, MVP?

You judge. But, can anyone else in the league do what Kobe is doing?

By the way, I will be at the Boston Garden for the last game of the regular season. The Celtics play vs Detroit Pistons. I'm looking forawrd to watching Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson and Chauncey Billups live.

I'm going to Harvard

Yes, from April 17-21 I will be in Boston attending the Program on Negotiation at Harvard School of Law. I am looking forward to visiting the city of Boston. I have been talking to some friends who have been living there and they say it is a very beautiful place.

On true love

Last week I wrote a comment to Tom's post on new marketing strategies. You should remember I branded our business age as The age of heartware. As I said before,

I have heard a lot about "love" guiding business and passion driven systems, and that kind of rhetoric. I think most leaders who talk like that don't know a word about it.

Love is not passion. Passion is "falling in love" with an ideal. It is related to the idea of perfection.

Love is asymmetric acceptance, that is the acceptance of what is not perfect. That is, compassion.

As Mauss and Levi Strauss showed in their works on exchange, social life is basically an exchange. And the normal rule is for a exchange to be symmetric. What is extraordinary is the acceptance of an asymmetric exchange. And that is love.

I am currently reading a very nice book called True love, by Thich Nhat Hanh. I like his style, because it reflects a realistic mind and a good heart. This is an interesting quote taken from it:

We know well that suffering helps us to undersatnd, that it nurtures our compassion, and that for this reason it is vitally necessary for us. So we must know how to learn from suffering, we must know how to make use of it to gather the energy of compassion, of love, of understanding.

I don't like suffering, but I like the quote though. I think that true compassion is a big achievement in every person's life. It can definitely change the decisions you will take in the future. And compassion can sometimes be nurtured by suffering. But still the seed of compassion should be planted in your heart.

Preparing my Ph.D.

For those of you who are wondering why I have written so few posts in the last two months the answer is that I am preparing my Ph. D.

I will be back soon.

Be peace on earth

These dates should be for reflection and self critic. What can I do not to be so weak in this or that? Be honest to yourself and recognize all those things the rest of the year you take for granted define yourself.

Once there was a basketball player called Word B. Free. Now we would need someone called World B.N. Peace.

Love, Felix.

Bye, bye Pinochet

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died yesterday. Despite being one of the most sanguinary dictators that ruled a nation in the XX century he has passed by unjudged for his crimes.

There is the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and the axis of Freedom. But Pinochet has died without responding for his tortures and assasinations. Not only without responding but without being asked, too.

If you still believe justice is a concept of this earth, just think Pinochet...